Sunday, July 17, 2011

The day Justin Bieber saved the day

I never thought I would have to "negotiate" with my 23 month old toddler. Turns out I was wrong, very wrong.

Today she insisted on bringing her tricycle downstairs when I told her that I have to grab some groceries from the provision shop downstairs. She relented only after I promised that we'll bring her out to the playground wearing her Mickey Mouse t-shirt later in the afternoon.

When it was time for nap, she had a bagful of trick up her sleeves. First, she insisted that Daddy and Mama slept in the room with her. Then after Daddy excused himself, she tricked me that she needed to "shee shee", and then it progressed to "poo poo" and made face like she was in pain. Since she was willing to sit on the potty, I let her out of the bedroom only to find that she was only interested in running to the living room to play.

After we peeled her off from her toys, we told her that as a weekend treat she could sleep on our bed but that didn't keep her in bed for more than 3 minutes before jumped and climbed on our bed and then exclaimed "poo poo" again. But we anticipated that from her and pulled out the potty that was already in our room. That made her angry, very angry and she kept pointing to the bedroom and shouted "outside, outside".

By then it was already 3 plus in the afternoon. I was so tired and relented so out of the bedroom she went and I left them to their own device while I try to catch a wink.

They both ended up not sleeping at all but at least she made herself useful by helping Daddy with the laundry. So by 4:30, we decided to not let the weekend go to waste and packed up to head for MacRitchie.

3 minutes in the car and she fell asleep.

Since she was sleeping, we changed our plans and drove to East Coast instead. Half way there, it rained and then poured... So all plans to cycle got scrapped and we ended up at Parkway.

Anyway to cut the long story short, she was a brat at dinner time and refused to sit on the high chair and told me she was tired and wanted to sleep on my shoulders. Which of course was far from the truth... By then I begin to feel eyes from the people sitting around us who must be thinking that I cant even take my daughter in my own hands.

And then she needed to poo, which in these days is accompanied by a lot of crying, screaming of "I don't want" and kicking and shoving. So to save ourselves from more embarrassment, I carried her to the toilet. But shit didn't happen...

Thank God Alexis saw my look of exasperation after we returned form the toilet and offered to take over since she didn't look the least interest in finishing her dinner. After they left, I could only slump my face into my palms and take a deep breath....

And then I heard the music playing, ....

Baby, Baby, Baby ohhh, like

Baby, Baby, Baby, no....

Then I remembered how adorable Sophie is when I taught her to sing the chorus of this song and slowly the frustration I felt melted away with the song. This has indeed been a less than perfect day but being angry will not make it better too. Alexis knew it too well when he came back with her and told me, don't get angry with her....